Why is fighting in the NHL down to historic lows?

Penguins right wing Ryan Reaves has six fighting majors this season. Overall, the number of fights is down in 2017-18 in the NHL, with fewer than 20 percent of games including one. What gives? Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

The NHL Weekly Reader publishes every Friday. Read on for the Jersey Foul of the Week, dancing Russians, All-Star snubs and much more. Seen something worth highlighting here? Hit me at greg.wyshynski@espn.com.

He was known as "The Grim Reaper."

For 12 season, Stu Grimson lived up to the moniker as one of the most feared fighters in the NHL. He played 729 games and amassed 2,113 penalty minutes, most of them earned after pounding the face of an opponent.

A typical season for him: In 2000-01, Grimson had 235 penalty minutes with 19 fights. That he only played six minutes per game and contributed just five points in 72 of them was immaterial, because one did not sign The Grim Reaper for his offensive acumen. His role was seen as a necessity because fighting in the NHL was prevalent: More than 38 percent of all NHL games had a fight (469 games) and there were 0.56 fights per game -- the kind of thing that used to inspire "I went to a fight, and a hockey game broke out" jokes.

Almost two decades later, hockey fighting hasn't just declined -- it's cratered. According to HockeyFights.com, the industry leader in tracking puck pugilism, the number of games with a fight in the NHL is projected to dip to less than 20 percent for the first time since it began tracking the stats in 2000. The number of fights per game (0.22) and the number of games with a fight (220) are also projected to hit new lows. This comes after a brief uptick in fighting last season -- 306 games with a fight, compared to 288 in 2015-16.

"We're moving into a place where there are games that feel like they call for a fight, but there's nothing there," said David Singer, who runs HockeyFights.com.

That's because a fourth-line enforcer like Grimson is all but extinct. Fights are no longer the norm in NHL games, but rarities that are quickly shared by fans through social media for their sheer oddity. "We don't see people running around for message-sending, or getting into a fight at the end of the game for giggles," Grimson told ESPN this week.

Why has fighting fallen off a cliff?

The easiest answer is that it's been headed for that cliff since 2005, when the NHL changed its rules during its locked-out season to create a faster, more offensive game. The downward trend for fighting didn't happen immediately, but by 2009 it was apparent that the culture had shifted. "We saw some pretty stark changes, and it's taken a while for those changes to completely permeate. The game's gotten faster. At the end of the day, there's a little less room for a player that's predominately a physical player. Roster space is precious. You need guys that bring three, four tools," said Grimson.

Hence, the twilight of the "enforcer." There's only one player in double-digits in fights this season: Micheal Haley of the Florida Panthers, with 11. In 1997-98, there were 56 players with at least 10 fights.

But there's also something about scoring rates this season -- at 2.95 goals per game, offense is at its highest peak since 2006-07 (also 2.95) -- that Grimson correlates with the fighting decline. There isn't just parity in the standings, but parity in games. There's so much scoring, and the teams are so closely matched, that players are more engaged, knowing that they're usually not out of games.

"One of the primary justifications for a fight is to pick up your team when it gets down or starts flat. It can change momentum in the game. But now that teams are more closely matched, we just don't have as much as that as we used to. So, from one season to the next, it's evolved," said Grimson.

Could health also be a factor? After all, NHL players know more about concussions and CTE now than they did back when Grimson was playing. Could it be that new generations of players are avoiding fights?

"I don't know if I subscribe to that. If you took the total universe of concussions, less than 10 percent of them are caused by a fighting altercation. For the person who that's concerned about their cognitive well being, they're probably going to stay away from the game altogether," he said.

I started watching hockey in the 1980s. Fighting was a part of my upbringing as a fan, and it's the brand of NHL hockey I'll probably always appreciate the most because of its unshakable nostalgic appeal. I used to be a snob about it, but I've finally arrived at a place where I'm no longer casting the stink eye at a younger fan who sees fighting as a relic or a bastardization of the game they would rather watch. Today's game isn't my game, but that doesn't mean it isn't extraordinarily entertaining and captivating on its own merits.

It's not fashionable to say it, but I miss fighting. It added an edge to games. It added a little bit of hate to games. As the NHL tries to sell rivalries as its lifeblood, it's hard to accept a sanitized version of these feuds for those of us that used to watch blood spilled during divisional smackdowns. There's a real "who sucked out the feeling?" thing going on in the NHL, especially the regular season. But Singer thinks this isn't tied to a decline in fighting as much as fighting is a bellwether for it.

"Fighting isn't the only way to show emotion, but there's something lacking, and it's more than fighting. It just happens to mirror the decline," he said.

Hockey is, if nothing else, a sport of trends. Sometimes we score for a few seasons, and then a defensive era takes hold, and then we change some rules and we're scoring again. So, could fighting boomerang back? Could the fists raise again?

To answer that, Grimson offered a history lesson.

"Fighting in the game has gone from being purposeful to being almost random in the 1990s. You had these nuclear warheads on these teams, justifying their existence. And today it's almost like a tactical ploy, to turn the momentum. To me, that's the primary reason we see it today. That's been the trend," he said. "I can't envision a circumstance where it goes back in the other direction -- especially in a political climate we find ourselves in today."

When the Grim Reaper says hockey fighting is basically dead, one listens.

Five thoughts on Team Canada

1.The Canadian Olympic men's hockey team was announced Thursday, and it's good to see the reactions have gone from crying about the lack of NHL participation in Pyeongchang to being genuinely (or at least generally) excited to see a collection of super-random players represent their countries and attempt to win gold. Who among us after the Sochi Games thought Canada's best hopes for a three-peat would rest on the shoulder pads of Maxim Lapierre, Mason Raymond and René Bourque? Not you, nor I. Which is part of the fun of it.

2. The team is basically a KHL expansion club, with 13 players from the Russian league on the roster, compared with five for the Americans, for example. Another big difference is NHL experience: The Americans have 15 players that made the show, while Canada has 23 NHL vets out of 25 players on their roster. They see your Brian Gionta, and raise you a Chris Kelly.

3. The biggest stunner was the lack of P.A. Parenteau on this roster. He had 28 points in 67 games last season in the NHL, was in Red Wings camp in the fall and played for Canada at the Spengler Cup. Is this a big-ice thing?

The other stunner, at least from those who watch him regularly, was goalie Justin Peters. He has played for Dinamo Riga (KHL) and Cologne Sharks (DEL) this season and had a save percentage below .891 in both. Obviously, there weren't many other options, and this is likely a third-stringer. But Peters is probably the fifth-best goalie on Team Canada when you factor in general managers Sean Burke and Martin Brodeur, even at their current levels of game-fitness.

"He thought his career was over a year ago. You saw his photo in the hospital bed, with his brace on. And last night he said he looked at that photo, and he just cried," coach Willie Desjardins said.

5. (Hey fellow patriots: Are the Canadians still reading, or are they reaching for the tissues after getting emotional about that Wojtek Wolski bit? Tissues? OK, good, listen: Having seen these rosters ... we're going to finally beat them in the medal round, and it's going to be glorious. U-S-A, Sam's Army, Eagle gif, fireworks. Let's go.)

Snubs hurt

Jonathan Marchessault leads the Golden Knights in scoring, with 40 points through 38 games, but was not named to the All-Star team. Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images

The NHL announced its All-Star teams on Tuesday, which then sent the hockey world into divergent directions: snub chroniclers and snub truthers.

The chroniclers loudly lamented that some players -- Phil Kessel, people! -- were overlooked in favor of other less deserving players based on their performances this season. The truthers, meanwhile, were telling the world that there's no such thing as a "snub" when the rosters are so small and every team is required to have a representative in the game.

The biggest problem with the NHL All-Star Game, in its latest incarnation, is that it can't decide whether it's a promotional event for fans and sponsors, whose only qualification for selection is celebrity status; or if it's a meritocracy. Putting Josh Bailey of the New York Islanders and Brayden Schenn of the St. Louis Blues in the All-Star Game would indicate it's a meritocracy -- they're both top-15 scorers this season, but previously never had to worry about beach plans being interrupted by a potential All-Star selection. Putting Marc-Andre Fleury of the Vegas Golden Knights in over Anaheim Ducks goalie John Gibson, and Vegas's James Neal in over the team's leading scorer Jonathan Marchessault, would indicate that name recognition and storylines trumped merit.

So until the meritocracy of the All-Star Game completely crumbles in favor of a roster full of the guys who sell the most jerseys, we're going to have snubs.

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2 Related

All this snub talk got me thinking about the real-world implications for being left off the All-Star teams. You see, as a voting member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, we're cognizant that our votes carry some financial weight. Awards such as the Hart Trophy carry a $250,000 windfall for winning them, to go along with whatever ancillary prestige accompanies being an MVP. Plus, players are eligible to win money for simply being nominated for awards: Let's say Anze Kopitar finishes second for the Hart and wins the Selke and is named a first-team postseason all-star: That's $550,000 right there. Not too shabby.

The All-Star Game is a little different. Players receive a small stipend from the NHL for being selected to play. Each winner of the skills competitions gets $25,000, and the winning team in the All-Star Game splits $1 million among them. (Remember John Scott with that giant check?) That money comes from the league.

But players who aren't 35-plus or on their entry-level contracts aren't eligible to have "All-Star bonuses" built into their contracts with teams, a change that was made during the 2005 lockout.

Players that are on their first contracts, however, are. Which brings us to Noah Hanifin.

There are four players on first-year contracts on the 2018 All-Star Game: Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Brock Boeser and Hanifin, who is in the last year of his rookie deal with the Carolina Hurricanes. Provided it's in their contracts -- and as highly drafted players, it should be -- each of them will receive $212,500 for making the All-Star teams, and they are all eligible to win $212,500 more if they earn MVP honors.

The NHL had a few options with the Hurricanes. They could have gone to the default pick on defense, Justin Faulk. Or they could have gone for either Hanifin or Jaccob Slavin, both of whom were eligible for that $212,500 bonus as rookie-contract holders. So they went with Hanifin, and he gets himself a nice chunk of beer money.

Just a reminder that a snub isn't just losing out on a trip to Tampa in January. In some cases, there's more at stake.

In the second intermission of the game, the West and East competed in a dance-off. The West danced in the locker room. As seen above, the Eastern Conference All-Stars got down at center ice. Said the KHL: "After much debate, there was still no clear consensus over the winner." Obviously.

Puck headlines

Why we should give the host city their own NHL All-Star team. An interesting concept. [Faceoff Circle]

David Staples sticks up for Peter Chiarelli after I put him on the hot seat. "He's a Devils fan, and that Devils-Oilers relationship is red-hot and jealous ever since the Taylor Hall-for-Adam Larsson trade." Yeah, it's all you hear everywhere you go in Jersey, that red-hot rivalry with the Oilers or whatever. [Cult Of Hockey]

Incredible story about a Spartans fan: "An abscessed tooth sent the young hockey fan on a nightmarish spiral toward death. The tooth infection spread to her heart and then throughout her body. Doctors amputated both legs and her right arm to spare her life." But Brittany Van Hoogen fought and is attending games again. [Lansing State Journal]

Here are 14 things to know about Hilary Knight. Including that "she uses a voice alternator on her phone to prank call" teammates. Wait, what? [Cosmopolitan]

Coastal Hospitality is suing the Abbotsford Minor Hockey Association (AMHA), coach James Young and 60 unidentified players and parents for an alleged Feb. 6, 2016, incident in which they caused more than $200,000 in damage by destroying an ice machine. "Coastal says the players were unsupervised when one or more of them damaged the ice machine and, in turn, ruptured the water line, which leaked water into the hallway and down elevator shafts. The water damaged the structure and contents of the hotel, its elevators and cost the hotel lost business, Coastal claims." [Mission City Record]

Interesting story here, as Edina High School, "in a novel effort for regular season prep sports in Minnesota, is charging a $100-per-game fee on media outlets live-streaming its boys' hockey games played at Braemar Arena." It's a way to battle declining attendance. [Star Tribune]